The new Mestizo, the vibrant blending of cultures, is unfolding in LA and in the San Gabriel Valley. Blessed iterations and flurtations in food, in celebration, and in healthy reverberations in Faith expression will carry an alert Christianity to a place where it may bless the gathering tribes in the Name of the Father + and of the Son, and of the quite active Holy Spirit.
The Altar of Remembrance is emblematic of the fusion afoot, as we honor our Celtic and English Traditions of the Triduum of All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’, and also its Mexican (and to a lesser degree Central American) expression in Dia de los Muertos observations.
All cultures…and our emergent culture…honor their dead. The Altar of Memory in the Narthex this coming Sunday through The Feast of All Saints’ is occasion to bring a consequential item of memory or a photo…there really are no limits on what might be brought, to place before the Eye of God and the Faithful for the censing of the Narthex Altar at the beginning of Liturgy October 30th. The building of the Altar commences this coming Sunday, October 23rd. Represent your beloveds who have passed to Larger Life.
Yes we have a deficit budget. Yes your Rector doesn’t talk enough about money, and has not made this (fairly well-presented matter at Annual Meetings and on other regular occasions of gathering…though perhaps not on Facebook) sufficiently obvious. So, here is yet another venue where your duly castigated Rector will speak of money.
Be Extremely Generous in your Annual Pledge, in your Estate Planning, in you augmented 5 year 75th Initiative Give, and in your engagement with others beyond our Parish who may have congruent interests aligning with an intelligent, non-fundamentalist, civilly and civically committed, expression of societal concern and engagement, even if our expression is un-apologetically Episcopalian.
I shall strive to unloose my tongue regarding Mammon, whom we must not serve, but which must be brought into service to God’s Reign.
Your Annual Gift, hoped for by the Feast of St. Edmund’s (November 20th, as you know), will determine a great deal regarding our capacity to engage our emerging fusion culture with a Sane and Vital Christianity, and enduring Western Cultural Values, formed and shaped by the intervention of God into human history in the Person of Jesus Christ, the final Messiah.
Alternative Visions are on offer. Many perspectives are individualistic expressions of questing spirituality, perhaps not melded to communal endeavor, and with which we may align. Then there are pernicious and harmful versions of Christianity, which Anglicanism in the Western Hemisphere labors to repudiate.
Even for those who wish to replace the Final Messiah with other visions (we are not equal opportunity Relativists) there are ways to strive toward shared ground. Episcopalians put ears to the ground for soundings of Truth in service to the warp and weave of healthy culture. Prosper our nuanced efforts. We’ll never be Glen Beck Talk Radio, but we do send important signals to those attuned to hear and receive.
Faithfully,
GFW+
Milky Way, Volcanic Eruption and Such in Photo HERE, and a revelatory iceberg (while we have them)
HERE
The appointed Lessons for this coming Sunday, Pentecost 23, October 23rd may be found HERE
Church observes National Disability Employment Awareness Month HERE
Want to Optimize those 10,000 Steps?
HERE
A Trek to the Mongolian Glaciar holding secrets to global warming HERE
The recent edition of Episcopal News from the Diocese of L.A. may be found HERE, and articles from the national Episcopal News Service HERE
Every Thursday at 9:30am Julie Quinn hosts and teaches a group English Language learning Japanese students in the DeKruif Building! Julie Quinn is amazing.
